White Lies
by Clockwork Spades
Summary: Alfred and Arthur have been friends for a long time, though they've never met in person and their video calls are rare. Both are usually explained away on the claim that they're both too busy with work or university, even if they keep up messaging - But in truth Arthur has a secret he's afraid to tell his American friend.


_Written to coincide with_ _douchearts_ _( tumblr)'s au and with her input_

* * *

' _Morning :-D_ '

' _Alfred it is 2am where you are why the hell are you on Skype?'_

 _'Netflix is very hard to resist man'_

Arthur rolled his eyes at the computer screen before him, certain he could picture his American friend likely sprawled out in bed with the laptop far too close to his face.

 _'Go to sleep'_

 _'But you're up now, I can talk to you!'_

 _'That's because it's 7am here and I had a full night's sleep so I could stay awake in my classes today, you've been awake for nearly 24 hours'  
'Plus I'm leaving in like half an hour and I have stuff to do, I can't message you the whole time'_

 _':c'_

 _'Don't you do that'_

 _':C'_

 _'I'm going to class now. Go to sleep.'_

Arthur shut his laptop off too soon to read Alfred's reply, though he heard the notification quite clearly, he didn't have time for that. On the up side, he rather hoped signing out like that would prompt Alfred to actually go to sleep – or at least nap for a bit. If not he was at least certain his American friend would pass out soon after in the middle of an episode of whatever the hell he was watching so late.

Alfred had been Arthur's friend for nearly three years now, they'd met online and after intermittent private messages they had steadily grown this friendship – which led to many late night messages and complaints about timezones over skype, not to mention ridiculous promises they made each other about what they would do if Alfred ever came to Oxford or Arthur to Albany. It was wishful thinking; Arthur was in his last year of university and Alfred had barely begun his second, though both were thankful for the fact that when Alfred started uni he stayed in the same timezone the fact that they were both students rather blunted any of their wishes to meet each other. It didn't stop Alfred going on and on in paragraphs about where he could take Arthur and what they would do, or rambling on the rare occasion they would take to voice or video calls – the latter of which Arthur was rather nervous about, they had only done it once and Arthur had hung up on 'technical difficulties'. The 'technical difficulties' were rather the reason they didn't call too often, either one of their connections had some issue that didn't allow Alfred to hear his British friend speaking, though Arthur could hear him perfectly fine.

The difficulties of their friendship didn't bother Arthur that morning however; in fact Alfred's greeting – however ridiculous in terms of his own health – had left the former smiling as he sorted himself out for the day. He only had one lecture that day, but he had pretty much the entirety of his day planned out for working on his essay in a silent study library, which left him the late evening to catch up with Alfred if he had worked out correctly the timings of Alfred's labs.

* * *

Seven hours, one lecture and too many pages of a book later, Arthur had given up on his essay. He'd edited and cut about an entire page of what he'd already written and added just two paragraphs more – which was a lot for his English literature classes, particularly when he'd likely cut out half of it again tomorrow before handing it in.

He rubbed his eyes with a frustrated yawn – not truly tired, more releasing the tension of several hours work (minus lunch and a couple of breaks). The roll of his shoulders and the half satisfying-half grotesque sound of them clicking served more as momentum for Arthur to stand from his library chair, laptop already closed and deposited in his messenger bag. He slung the bag over his shoulder as he stood, shaking his head once more to rid himself of the crusty, dazed feeling staring at a word document for over an hour gave you.

The trip from the library to his own dorm was not a long one, actually he'd chosen his specific dorm because of its proximity to the library and English buildings, just a seven minute walk (Ten if you were lazy, five if you tried). Finally being inside with the door to his room shut, however, was more of a relief than the refreshing walk had been. Nice as the fresh air had been, collapsing into his desk chair was much more relieving.

With a little effort, he pulled out his laptop again and plugged it into all the usual sockets, leaving it to boot up whilst he deposited himself on his dorm room bed. He'd only just turned over onto his back when a knock sounded on his room door, the head of one of his building-mates appearing around it a moment later with an apologetic smile.

"Hey, sorry I just noticed you get in. We're ordering out tonight, you in?" Arthur nodded his assent, barely beginning a gesture of question before the lad continued. "Pizza, you can give us your share when it arrives." Arthur nodded again, giving a vague thumbs up before the other man left.

He flopped back onto his pillows, giving himself a couple of moments to lie there with his eyes closed before getting up again. He aimed for his laptop before remembering the door, heading to that instead to lock it (as he had forgotten earlier). With no particular grace, he landed back in his desk chair, the swivel of it spinning him a little with the force his landing had provided. He pulled his headphones on just in time to hear the notification of his skype alerting him to a new message.

He clicked on the icon, no surprise to see Alfred's grinning face in his profile picture smiling up at him as the window opened.

' _Hey Art :-D thought u were doing that essay?'_

 _'I was, I couldn't concentrate anymore, had to come home. Shouldn't you be working?'_

Arthur adjusted his position in his seat for comfort, adjusting the headphones over his ears in the same movement.

 _'I would but that douchebag in my practical knocked over my stuff ୧_ _(๑•_ _̀ᗝ•́)૭_ _I can't do any of the reports until tomorrow'_

 _'Well that sucks. What the hell is that icon by the way?'_

 _'It's Japanese! I think they're adorable, I got an app for them on my phone'  
_ Arthur rolled his eyes at the predictable reply, holding back from responding as Alfred continued to type on his own end. _  
'Actually on that practical, I'm doing a few equations can we call instead of typing so I can concentrate?'_

A cold, catching feeling of dread wormed its way into Arthur's gut as he read the words, skin growing hot and tingly with the sudden adrenaline of fear rushing through him. It was ridiculous, Alfred wasn't going to mind or suddenly stop being friends with him because of this one thing. Why couldn't he just tell him?

' _Wouldn't talking to me decrease your concentration? Finish your equations and then talk to me.'_

He typed the reply quickly, aware of the little numbers beside Alfred's last message letting him know that he'd taken two minutes to answer him.

 _'Aw :c but I can concentrate better if you let me talk, if I just talk to myself in my room I'll sound stupid.'_

 _'You always sound stupid'  
'No one else is in your room, they won't be able to hear.'_

 _':c'_

Arthur rolled his eyes at the screen – or at least attempted to, well aware of the uncomfortable knotting in his stomach as he tried to divert Alfred's attention from the concept of calling him. He didn't answer the small emote, hoping ignoring him until he claimed his work was done would trigger Alfred into working – as it had oftentimes in the past. Instead he was greeted with another sad face after his lack of response.

 _':C'  
'Arrrrrrrrrrttttttttttttttttttttttttt'  
'Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease'  
'I won't start working until you call me c:'_

The small smiling face didn't quell Arthur's fears, though he realised there was no use putting Alfred off this time. He swallowed thickly, curling and uncurling his hands before adjusting himself in his seat. He pulled the microphone down on his headset from where it was folded up on the rim, eyes flickering down to the box to ensure the mic button was switched from 'on' to 'off'.

' _Fine'_

He typed back, adjusting the angle of his laptop and swiping his tongue over his lower lip as he waited for Alfred to call. He didn't need to wait long, the call tone and small box allowing him to accept or decline appeared just moments later. For a moment he was tempted to click decline, turn the wifi off for an hour or so and return with the claim that his laptop had crashed—he'd only done that once before, he felt awful for it and he wasn't particularly eager to repeat the experience.

He clicked the 'answer' button, Alfred's grinning face appearing on his screen in an instant – the mess of his dorm room framing the image behind him.

"Hey! It's been a while since we called." The American greeted warmly, eyes flickering between the box that held Arthur's face on his own screen to the desk beneath. From the angle of Alfred's camera Arthur could see the loose papers and stacked textbooks beside Alfred and not for the first time he was glad he didn't take a science.

Ensuring once more that his microphone was surely muted, he opened his mouth to mouth a greeting and the sentiment he had just thought. It felt unnatural, the movement of his mouth unpractised and uncomfortable, but Alfred never noticed, normally because he interrupted halfway through- as he did now.

"—Still can't hear you dude, have you actually had your microphone checked out? I thought you had a buddy in IT who was gonna look at it for you."

Arthur frowned, making a show of looking at the various Skype options and shaking his head, though really he clicked randomly across his desktop. Alfred frowned to, humming in disappointment that made guilt and a little bit of fear curl up uncomfortably in Arthur's chest.

"I'm starting to think I need to send you a new headset, maybe that'd work. Good ol' American engineering." His grin was back, met with a roll of the eyes that Arthur didn't have to fake. Alfred's smile was infectious, and feeling the danger was gone Arthur allowed a small one to touch his lips, reaching out to type his reply instead.

' _I doubt that's really the problem.'_

Alfred pouted, glancing from the words to his own camera as if to look Arthur directly in the eye. "You wouldn't know, your stuff always breaks. Doesn't matter, I can do the talking for both of us. Again." His grin was playful, eyebrows waggling just to entertain Arthur before his gaze returned to the papers on his desk.

Arthur's shoulders shook in a silent laugh, hand coming up to cover his mouth – both a habit he had picked up to disguise and a method of hiding his sad smile when it appeared.

He never quite found the bravery to tell Alfred he'd always have to talk for the both of them.


End file.
